Dreamscape

A Spell for Lere

Ulgrim’s Raiders now count 8, living in an abandoned tannery being repurposed to a new mercenary hall by Skeppy the gnome and his 14 children. It has been redubbed “The Raider’s Roughhouse.”

Torinn went to check in on renovations to the old House of Sulfur, the alchemical guild in Wamor. Reconstruction is going well, but there was something found below. A recently (within the year) dug tunnel leading to some sort of metal seal that matches that of the one in the center of the council chamber. Xiao seemed to have found it, but did not survive to uncover its truths. Torinn gave orders that no one else is to go down the tunnel or speak of it, and we’ll come back to that later.

Returning home we find… the menagerie. Whoosh has taken it upon himself to… acquire some new companions for the home, that have made their nest in the attic of Themorinn Manor. Hans has been adopted by a few cats, and there is also a pair of fire beetles, now.

We also learned that Zeiram had unfortunately been able to succeed in acquiring his old Dragon Guard High Captain, Brüwick. Naxus (archmage and headmaster of the university, and right-hand to Lord Rosalia) promised to find out what he could about the man and deliver more info. His diviners, however, tracked agents of Zeiram to another tomb. A buried ruin that had housed the remains of one of Zeiram’s broods. As Zeiram’s scouts have been more aimless recently and venturing further and further out, he feels this is likely Zeiram’s next target. Buried in the tomb will be dozens of royal dragoons, as well as the remains of Malachovorax, one of Ancalagon’s more twisted spawn.

On the heels of that, Torinn and Adhara flew several miles east to investigate in person an encroaching sinister cloud. However, in coming close enough to discern details and its nature, they also became targets for the spectral swarm that comprised the cloud. A terrifying miscellany of incorporeal undead broke from the cloud and pursued Torinn, and unfortunately proved faster than he was (in that form and carrying Adhara, anyway). The horrid wails pierced Adhara’s soul, and he fell victim immediately, falling off of Torinn’s back. 3 rounds of failed attempts to grab Adhara later, Torinn finally manages to get a hold of the Aasimar before hitting the ground, but gave the undead a chance to catch up. Right on their heels, they are saved by a miraculous appearance of Naxus and a cadre of mages. Naxus takes Torinn and Adhara to his private sanctum, an invisible sort of spytower floating high above the university (with vision of the whole city). He gives Torinn some ointment which Torinn pours down Adhara’s throat, tells them he thinks there’s something big and bad in the center of the cloud. He’s preparing his mages to form a defense over the water before they reach Wamor, but that you should prepare to handle the big thing. He sends Torinn back home to warn the others.

Meeting concludes. Lady Greymane is again missing. Governer Reynes steps down gracefully and does not give the position of Imperator to Stonebrook. Rosalia upsets Zahran by going against a motion of his. Afterward Rosalia is escorted off to speak with Zahran.

The book is the ancient-est, evil-est book around. Or one of them. And also it literally eats through everything. It rots wood, turns stone to dust, withers cloth. It’s a pretty bad book. They bind it in the bag of holding.

The armor is pretty neat. Cursed for sure, but also pretty neat. It’s draconic armor, basically. Resistance to acid, and can sense the nearest dragon.

The sword… phooey. Whoosh touches it and is swallowed by miasma, dolly zoomed out of the room. He’s face to face with a giant skeletal face. It just breathes out the word “You…”

He has trouble relaying this information, but the party eventually discerns that the sword is one that houses the last fragment of Nerull, the god of murder and death, before the Raven Queen and Vecna overthrew him.

Now it’s Whoosh’s. He spends some time getting used to it, before putting it also into the bag of holding.

Then they speak with Machtig’s corpse.

Did you serve willingly? No
*Where did you get this sword? I don’t know
*What was your last memory? Being risen, “Richter had failed”
*how do we get into zeiram’s realm Well I had to die, so…
*what do you want us to do with your body? Burn it, please, as befits an officer of the empire

It seems he wasn’t raised willingly, and didn’t know anything about it. While some of the undead seem to retain personality, some obviously don’t. No knowing for sure what the connection is.

They all sleep well that night, except Whoosh. Who has another dream of being swallowed by a black hole of bodies.

Fight Machtig. Nearly kills one person. Kill Machtig (Whoosh does). Gather up his armor, the book, his fucked up sword. Lara Vahl (gnome sorcerer) bails with the people she came to rescue. They head outside and take on the horde of skeletons. Immigrant Song plays. Skeletones die.

Afterward the communication stone they also took off of Machtig erupts in the dimensional pocket of the haversack. A voice comes through, “Machtig, hello?!” Whoosh attempts to immitate Machtig. It does not work. The stone goes inert.

The party is escorted to Rosalia’s palace. Where they meet Naxus, the Archmage of the University. He’s old, made a fart jokes, and he seems not to like Rosalia. The party instantly loves him.

Naxus and a few understudies turn the party into clouds where they rush to Fort Bracken. They meet up with a few living rangers and a gnome storm sorcerer.

They plan their entrance into the fort and use what remains of their cloud form to sneak in. It’s been sieged all right. Hundreds of undead are everywhere, and also Machtig. Before they entered, they see another. A mummy looking fellow in command of some scary looking skeletons. He leaves through a portal after giving Machtig some orders. It appears to be Allegemaine.

‘Inside the fort they race between the legs of the skeletons to find the survivors and commander, but no sign. The skeletons however meet up, thinking the clouds are the escaping survivors. And they’re about to tell Machtig when the party ambushes them.

Later they do find the survivors, and Fort Commander Warrick. They also find the reason for the undead assault. The Necronomicon. Rosalia’s mages working out of Fort Bracken found it and brought it here. Just as the party is about to head out and chastise Rosalia with an aberrant scream, Machtig breaks down the door.

Our special 100th session was talking.

There’s a meeting. First, after the party gets back the evening before the meeting. Premier Rosalia approaches and asks if they’ll offer support for his to be proposed lifting of the ban on necromantic research. It could be a major boon. The party disagrees and Rosalia leaves in huff.

The next morning the houses meet. It’s a huge procession. Fancy music, etc.

3 hours of talking later…

Lady Greymane is in attendance, but only speaks through one of her daughters. They propose making the elves of Aedyr official members of Lere, and it passes.

Rosalia proposes his lifting of necromancy, but no one bites.

Auburn invents insurance, and it passes.

Zahran proposes the Tribunal Populi, and it passes. As well as the motion to remove the Lere household from power, now that all their sovereigns are dead. Lere will officially become an oligarchy (it unofficially always was).

Stonebrook proposes they take the seat of Imperator. A temporary military position offered command of all the kingdoms fighting forces. The vote is abstained from all, except Governer Reynes. Before he can cast his vote, however, a runner comes. Fort Bracken has been attacked. The dead are on the move.

Defeat the horror not too shabbily. Horgrim comes in, pissed, smashes the Orrery to pieces (a pretty bad offensive as far as dwarven love of good work is concerned) and takes Thosk into Custody. He also chews out and almost arrests the party. Kahma talks him down. Salazar later chews out people from the grave.

Real Vosk makes a visit and tells people that the Gods are hunting him, and soon they’ll be hunting the party. Just for knowing what they know. They’re a risk. But soon he’ll have work for them. For now, lay low, and do what the gods say.

Torinn discusses terms with Loch from Loch and Lodestones about a partnership and patronage.

Adhara and Ulgrim head off to Axe and Hammers to do a little personal shopping, wherein Adhara commissions a hella cool armor set.

Later that night, Adhara is again approached by Azreal, and told to keep an eye on the rest. To keep the astrolabe close.

Figure out Voreceredolus is an illusion. Take Astrolabe and staff. Stow staff in bag of holding. Abuella agrees to put out feelers for people looking to join Adventurer’s Guild. Even though meeting is in three days (It’s the 7th of Koshbar, meeting is on the 10th), they head with Astrolabe off to Barumila. We see Thosk, Vosk’s nephew.

We learn the truth about what the Kalashtar are, and who they are. The Kalashtar are souls somehow crossed over from the previous dream. They don’t fully belong, and ride alongside souls from this world, attached.

Thosk then says the Orrery is a location device, and with the Astrolabe, they can find, for real Vosk. In the warrens.

They try, they temporarily activate it, and they see a desolate grey world devoid of color or life.

Not long after, however, something breaks through. Something tears a whole. A disgusting thing of tentacles and eyes. We end there.

Emon -- They need us more than we need them.

The five shamans of Aedyr

begin encircling the tree and chanting in unison “Mallaithe Crann”, meaning (more or less) “The Cursed Tree”. As they continue to chant, the air around the tree stills and grows colder, and the tree begins to shrink and darken. More and more the tree recedes and shrinks, and as it shrinks the ropes and binds loosen and the bodies begin to fall off. As the tree shrinks, the bark darkens, congeals, and sloughs off in black gooey clumps. The tree eventually regresses and shrinks down to disappear beneath the swampy pile of black goo and bodies.

After it disappears, the shamans stop circling, turn toward the center, raise their hands, and incinerate the whole pile. The goo burns hot blue and white, and the bodies are incinerated. When all is done, one of the shamans step forward, digs through the center and removes a small tree sapling, normal for all but it’s black color. Shaking the dirt from its roots, the shaman swallows the sapling whole, and all five leave.

This last part perplexes the party seriously, and inquiring about it they learn the shamans are powerful naturalists, and believe in their responsibility to hold “evil” within them as vessels to keep it out of the world. Making them all feared, revered, and cursed. The party then sets out burying the corpses. With torinn summon 8 giant badgers and turning into one himself, and with the others helps, the party is able to bury all of the bodies within the long hour it takes. It’s a somber, macabre task. Sweat and skin is spent digging, all to bury over 30 corpses. All dead for nothing but resembling the party. The sobriety of that fact is not lost on them.

They take off next to finally see Duke Auburn.

This is the first time they’ve been to the Vaneer Estate. And it is… garrish. Wealth on unabashed display. Once allowed entrance (which happens immediately as it seemed they were somehow expected) they find the inside to be no more humble. And after being offered, like, cucumber sandwiches on golden platters, Duke Auburn arrives dressed… appropriately. Whoosh redresses himself to match and after some cordial introductions, Auburn asks to speak to Emon in private.

They move to Auburn’s library/study where a single girl in the corner is playing wine glasses with varying amounts of water, just for ambiance. Auburn insists they can speak openly here.

Emon makes the demand that their property be returned, and the interference of the Thieves’ Guild end. Auburn says that he deals with the Guild but does not control them. He used to be involved with them in some capacity, but has since separated himself from their direct operation. He was made aware of their intentions regarding House Themorinn, but does not have the influence to make demands. However, he might be able to convince them to end their “feud”. He promises to do what he can.

Next, Auburn lays out that he is aware of an issue to come up at the next Council meeting, that of Themorinn’s need to choose a House Lord as requirement towards “official” status. That being the case, between Toro, Torinn, Tharious, and Emon, Auburn would much rather have Emon at the head of a new house, someone he could deal with more… amicably. Right? Emon says he’ll talk with his companions about it.

Finally, Auburn says he has something else he wants to ask. He’ll trade information for a favor. Emon isn’t buying it, so presses to know the favor first. Auburn responds with “I’m a man who knows the worth of things, if I say you want this information, trust me… it’s worth it.” Emon resists anyway, and presses to know the favor first.

Auburn considers, and decides to tells him. First, he orders with just a snap of his fingers for his winge-glass playing attendant to leave. And he walks over to his fireplace and manipulates an odd iron sphere. A moment later a sort of “thick” green light encompasses them. It adds an almost imperceptible echo to their words, and slight after-image trail to their movements. “Better to avoid prying eyes.”

Auburn reveals his desire. He wants a sword stolen from the Prince of the Summer Court, Damh, son of Titania and Oberon. The sword is Orion, The Master Sword. It commands respect from all magic weapons in an unknowable way. No magical weapon can strike the wielder of Orion. They avert, or resist enough to make the attack completely ineffective. Auburn wants this weapon.

Nothing big.

As Auburn finishes his proposal, Emon takes a moment to consider. And says no. They’re Lords, not henchmen. And in addition to that, Emon doesn’t do that sort of work anymore. Therefore the answer is no. He tells Auburn that he’s lived a life of brutality (savagery? danger? I can’t remember) that Auburn wouldn’t be accustomed to, and so Auburn shouldn’t press Emon on this. Auburn, however, only smiled. His skin grew blue. His body grew, muscles bulged. Hair grew white, nails grew to claws. Eyes took on a yellow glow. Who knows what this beast is that took Auburn’s place, but he reaches out and grasps Emon by the skull and….

Auburn lays out that he is aware of an issue to come up at the next Council meeting, that of Themorinn’s need to choose a House Lord as requirement towards “official” status. That being the case, between Toro, Torinn, Tharious, and Emon, Auburn would much rather have Emon at the head of a new house, someone he could deal with more… amicably. Right? Emon says he’ll talk with his companions about it.

Auburn nods, bows, and bids Emon farewell, and thanks him for his time. Emon returns the pleasantry and leaves, all memory of the latter part of that meeting gone entirely. No trace.

They take the back alleys home

to avoid the attention they’ve been garnering. Sometime into the walk, however, they hear the familiar sounds of a fight, a scuffle. They deliberate on whether it’s their problem or not, and decide to check it out. Peeking around the corner they see a handful of Rosalia’s men surrounding an indiscernible figure on the ground. Whoosh takes this moment to exhibit what he’s capable of. Two of the men he incapacitates in a single shot each, but the third he misses. Or appears to. The arrow flies at a whistle around to strike the tallest of them in the head, knocking him out cold with a walloping arrow.

The remaining two run off and the party lets them. They march up to the incapacitated two, crippled and crawling away. One cowers and is unable to answer basic questions, another mocks up some courage and manages to actually hold up a shaky sword to Emon. I’m blanking now on what happened next, but it ended with the Rosalia guard dropping his sword and trying to crawl away again. Some further intimidation stops their movement.

The party’s attentions turn toward the unconscious man on the street. They notice now he’s beat to near death, and decked out in House Auburn guard regalia. They heal him and help him up. He stands, bleary at first, but swiftly regains himself. And the first thing he does start kicking the unconscious Rosalia guard a bit in the head. Then he introduces himself as Brobin.

The party moves into interrogation trying, back and forth, to determine the truth from these rivals. It proves tedious to work out the details, as each only wants to reveal as much as makes their actions justified. But apparently pre-existing tensions erupted at a nearby tavern, The Leaky Bucket, a common hangout for some of the guards of both houses. A fight broke out between the two and ended sourly, particularly for the Auburn men. They retaliated and ended up putting someone named Kathil in the hospital. And the attack on Brobin was in response to that.

Hearing these squabbles baffled the party, so they ask, “How dare you behave this way when the city needs you now more than ever to protect them and stand together?”

To which Brobin incredulously responds for all three guards, “Protect? Protect!? Have you seen what’s out there? An army of undead! There’s nothing to protect, this city is doomed. So many have left already, I’m earning double what I used to. I’m staying only just long enough to make enough for my family to leave and we’re out of here.”

It seems, the party realizes, the city is worse off than they thought.

Finally reaching their house, Tharious receives a guest.

Amasiah Archibald, the Pope-Equivalent of the Acropolis and Pelor faith, comes personally with his guard to speak to Tharious. A plain couple of requests. One, they’ve heard of Tharious’ giant flaming candle ball, and given the emotional/mental state of the city, and given that the Summer festival of Solar Crest is only a few weeks away, the church would be honored to hoist Tharious’ creation above the Acropolis itself, not only as a monument to Pelor, but a symbol of hope to the people of the city. No greater purpose. Tharious agrees. Next, Archibald informs Tharious that nothing could be more important to the Pelorian faith than having a second Faithful house in the city to further the message and word of Pelor. Nothing could possible be more important, the celestial purpose meaning more than the terrestrial. And Tharious represents that hope amongst the four “lords” of House Themorinn. Therefore, when they decide who will be lord, Archibald tells Tharious that it must be him.

And so after Archibald and his company departs, the party holds a meeting.

The purpose was simple. Share the information they’ve received and make a decision about Lordship.

They share finally that Shiek Zahran, Duke Auburn, and Amasiah Archibald have all approached different members to suggest a different house lord. What they do about that will be up to them.

Next, the state of the city. It is plainly far worse off than they previously believed. It is here the party realizes that whatever their opinion of the party, they plainly need the party’s abilities more than the party needs the money and property.

More discussion is had about the nature of what this will look like. Emon also begins to discuss his proposal for turning the house into an Adventurer’s Guild. The house they inherited had The House of Sulphur, a major exporter and manufacturer of alchemical supplies, and it held the docks. But Emon’s idea would supplant the local Harlequin Blade, and be a pressure to local houses to “behave” or else their populace would lose the otherwise free access to House Themorinn’s benefits.

Whoosh expresses disbelief that the legendary “RAVEN” has turned into a tax-debating, lord-meeting, house-managing… noble. He brings up the information he has collected on a safe house of The Diamond Hand and Raziel specifically, only to be floored to learn Emon already killed Raziel. Though still, is he even still seeking revenge on the assassin’s who stole his family and life? Emon basically says, “Relax, I promise I’m still that guy. I’ve just grown up to do this, too. The guild’s days are still numbered.”

They’re about to continue the conversation, when they’re interrupted by a suddenly vertical purple line appearing middair. It bows out in the middle and grows large enough for a person to fit through. A particular person, in fact. An illithid person. One who looks a lot paler than last they saw him, with decaying skin, his robes tattered and spattered with the weird purple blood of the illithid.

It is Vorceredolus. Their… “Friend” is definitely the wrong word. But someone who has helped them sort of before. Though also killed Jeremy, and had dealings with Grimjaw.

Only Happy Things Grow on Trees.

Hans delivers the morning news.

1. Aashir needs to see them

2. The docks are dry. Somehow the ships aren’t coming in.

3. Someone handed them a note. Thieves Guild Mark.

They head down to the vaults immediately. Despite the ostensible magical protections and otherwise complex lock, half the gold is gone. And Abuella appears to inform them that another Guild Mark was left behind.

They head to the docks.

They find Tritons, some myrmidons led by a civilian ambassador, Marrilus. Vodos leaves with Marrilus entourage and Myrmidons. Thrawn is a threat, and the Tritons must prepare for what is out there (Zeiram). He takes the earrings, conch, and chuul with him.

Interrogating Witicker, the dockmaster, they learn the ships just aren’t coming. And the thieves guild presence here is gone as well. They head to Ottomon Quay.

There they find a warehouse where Hugo, the scarred dwarf is operating like he did in the waterways below the Themorinn docks. He informs him that he gave the message to the rulers of the thieves guild, whoever they be. And the docks and vault robbery was their reply. Also he says if they’re itching for a fight, it’ll do them no good here. The enforcers here are all street rabble employed on peanuts, just doing as ordered. Same as Hugo.

So then, Hugo suggests speaking to some of the players “friends in high places”.

Off to Lord Auburn they go. Er, I mean back to their HOUSE they go, with plans to see Auburn later (Joe had to leave).

On the way back, there is a jingling sound in the alley they take to avoid public attention. Then a whoosh… then… a goddamn big black bipedal bird. And it tackles Emon. Where once stood Emon is a cloud of feathers, and Emon is on the ground… smiling. Ew.

Anyway, the bird introduces himself as an actual whoosh sound, nice. So they call him Whoosh, and Whoosh is his name.

They stop by the house to orient themselves and find a clean path to Shiek Aashir Zahran, and meet with him first.

Aashir appears with Rochelle again, his uncle still out of the picture. He’s also accompanied by two very uptight, well-dressed high elves. First, he congratulates them on the good work their doing. The undead numbers around Lere seem to be dwindling. So… good news? I’m sure it’s good news… He introduces himself to Whoosh with a compliment, and gets a weird anime sigh in return. He doesn’t know what to do with that so he just grabs Torinn and walks away.

Then he makes his motives for their visit clear.

1. He is going to be proposing the Tribunal Populi. A council of 3 elected public officials that will represent the people, to be a voice not of nobility, but purely democratic power. They’ll vote at council meetings, and be empowered to make some regulatory decisions on their own regarding grain, etc. Decisions that currently are made almost exclusively by House Lere.

2. He wants Torinn to know that eventually, as part of being made “Official”, they will need to select a real leader/lord of House Themorinn. And that leader will be expected to have a lineage, if you know what he means. Bow chicka wow wow. Without it, their “legitimacy” as a proper Noble HOUSE will be called into question, and they permanence of their leadership will be denied, their ownership revoked. Aashir wants Torinn to know that he wants Torinn in charge, that Torinn has demonstrated the strongest morals and care and compassion.

Aashir then informs the party that he’s having a feast to honor the guests from Cadale, elven diplomats sent to broker a deal for aid from Cadale. The elves send aid against the undead, and in return they get a stake of Lere, or a seat at the council, who knows. Something. Some hook into the governorship of Lere.

With that meeting concluded, they head outside to the refugee camp to see what aid they can lend there. Knowing that 4k of their own gold a week is being sent out, and that basically every cleric and druid in the city and Aedyr is out making food, the party wants to know what they can do to help.

Before they can make headway in the chaos of the burgeoning tent city, they are ushered by two panicked wood elves into the woods a few miles west of town. Only that they must see something.

And something it is. When they finally arrive, around midday, they see…. something horrible.

Already surrounded by various druids and shamans of Aedyr both sanctifying the place and debating whether or not to burn it to the ground (also arguing over what this omen means), the players see a tree. The elves couldn’t have known its significance until they see the characters walk up. Emon, Tharious, and Torinn, anyway.

Lashed, staked, bound, and tied to this tree from root to stem, every inch, are about 3 dozen bodies in various macabre configurations, all mutilated so that their stomachs are ripped open and the jagged torn skin and bones are contorted to form crude, hideous mouths. And every single corpse either bares a horrifying remarkable similarity to one of Emon, Torinn, or Tharious, or have been dressed up to achieve that goal.

Torinn sees, however, one more thing. A floating golden orb of light, just like that one that was seen in the temple. It moves to greet Torinn as Torinn approaches is, and as Torinn angrily addresses the orb, it tils and bobs in a fashion that could only be interpreted as laughter, then it disappears into the open stomach wound of one of the Torinn doppelgangers and disappears.

In the silence that falls over the whole glade as the players approach their mutilated look-alikes, we end the session.

This is a no go, and the players bail the fuck out after getting hit by a goddamn death fire ball and him throwing a temper tantrum when he hears the Eye is gone. The players hide in a cubby until he passes then run the fuck out. On the surface are more blackguards, more orcs, and what looks like an orc chieftain. Honestly they’re not worried about being able to kill these guys, but they can’t afford the time sink, and choose instead running through a goddamn tree to get out of there. The horses, wagons, and supplies are left behind. (Nothing noteworthy, just some lost gold in food, etc.)

Back home, they rest. That night Emon offers the eye to the Raven Queen who’s happy to learn Vecna’s Archons will not regain their throne anytime soon, as that would pose a greater threat to the Raven Queen’s reign over the Shadowfell (which she battles Vecna over).

In the morning, Torinn holds a “trust” meeting, establishing the importance of trusting each other, and Adhara is pulled away by the Archangel Azreas. He wants to know what the party heard from Omen, but doesn’t want the party to know they’re being watched. He wants Adhara to keep an eye out as a result.

Who let these men be guards?

Urreek, Foigo, and Zeke are summoned early (11am) by their captain Jonathon to the house of the local merchant’s guild representative, Tafeld. He’s hosting these new guys who have been running around town preachin’ and prayin’ on people with their strange new religion.

They ostensibly want the guards to escort them around, but while the lunch happens at Tafeld’s house, Vosk starts asking a lot of strange, weird questions about the town. And after a while seems convinced of something. “All right then, you know what? How about you escort us back to the temple, instead?” he says.

That’s when Tafeld freaks out and tries to run away. One of the cultists activates his mana and sends everyone else in the room to sleep.

The party wakes up hours later in Tafeld’s wine cellar, bound and gagged.

Breaking some wine bottles and using the shattered glass, Urreek frees himself and then the others. And they begin working on escape. They find Tafeld’s daughter, Lilly, scared and hiding in the bedroom. They comfort and hide her, and promise to be back. Later they find some toys and a kid scrawled run away note and take it all back to her for extra comfort.

In Tafeld’s desk they find a note that gives them the likely location of the cultists temple (“Moonfell Lake”) and combined with Lilly’s description of it as “the muddy place”, they’re pretty sure that’s where they need to head. They also fund some “Lusty Lizardfolk Maid” smut in the desk and Tafeld’s bedroom but whatever, don’t judge him. He’s a single father on the road.

So off they go, but there are some cultists guarding the exit. Jeanette, Trevor, and Nick. Sadly Nick kill himself in a burning web. Trevor and Jeanette they subdue and put in the barracks, along with Lilly, before heading off to find the temple.

Outside the temple they see a group of five cultists surrounding a sixth who is playing Zeke’s banjo. He swiftly sneaks behind the group and snatches the banjo out of their hands, making a wild threat, which a couple of the Third Dream cower to. A fight ensues, The group is summarily whooping the cultists until one transforms into a… thing. That fight proves deadlier. Zeke falls to the beast, only saved by Foigo later pouring a potion down his throat. They barely make it, but defeat the beast and head inside the small temple to find their captain.

Inside they find the temple to be near empty, and are easily able to sneak by the few inside, and make it to the main chamber where they find the tail end of some ritual. Standing in the center of the group is Tafeld, decomposing around everyone in radiant blue energy.

Vosk is there, making some speech about some shit, when he brings forth the captain forward. The captain seems different, and before their eyes vows loyalty to Vosk. In exchange Vosk provides the man with a small black crystal like they’ve seen before. Zeke doesn’t like it, and shoots it in the captains hand. This has the unfortunate (but probably expected) outcome of shattering the crystal in his hand, releasing the energy which absorbs into Jonathon.

Vosk begins his approach toward the party, which Urreek retaliates to with a rapid flurry of attempted spells, though it seems difficult perform the incantation. Finally Urreek in his panic succeeds, but even then it hardly affects Vosk at all. At a gesture from Vosk, a psychic power assails the guards. Only Foigo resists the assault, only to watch Urreek and Zeke step forward to the pool in the rear of the chamber and kneel before the creature. The rest of The Third Dream begins to approach Foigo, who just… runs.

He runs back to town only to see that Vosk’s claim has already begun. The town itself is ablaze with blue witch fire, and off on a far edge of town he sees maybe 2 or 3 dozen of his neighbors and friends kneeling before a group of cultists and accepting their own robes.

Foigo remembers Lilly, and bravely charges through the burning town to get to the barracks. He runs into, however, Ms Layton, a chubby little halfling, normally a really nice old lady, now an azure flaming demonic looking chick torching the house of a teenager who’d steal her flowers for his girlfriends.

He dodges out of the way of her blast and makes it to the barracks, retrieving Lilly. On escape a blast of fire strikes the barracks, sending the roof collapsing down on Foigo. He saves Lilly, but at the cost of his leg. Popping the last of his healing potions for his pain, he limps out of town with the girl and heads north, leaving Glenbrook to the torch, and Vosk, his Third Dream now bolstered.

Vosk’s Speech

God of Oaths, bear witnes and see this man has kept his word, true to his last breath, full to his blod’s last drop. Keep his soul in your Memory until the time of our rebirth, and regard him among your Favored. Let his life be kept as confession, and his death remembered as absolution. May he walk in the new world ever free of the weight of sin.

Your brother has done his part. I will accept no further hesitation from the rest of you. In the sight of the God Who Dreams, will you fulfill your oath? Will you take your place in destiny beside your brother in the endless esteem of His Memory that is without flaw? Step forth, and be assured of the great worth of your life’s course!

And Keeping Old Ones

We head downstairs. There’s a tense conversation first about the melted snow piles. Vodos demands retribution for the slain heroes in the room, but Melinoe brushes off his concern with the fact that they weren’t real, just simulacrums. His concern with their dealings with horrifying goddamn demons grows.

Once downstairs they see the body of Nerazu. Torinn sees the field that’s keeping Nerazu from dying, and also Nerazu’s ethereal form, separated from his body but unable to leave. He’s just… skipping and singing something to himself.

The room is spotted with columns that reach to the ceiling, each carved with a relief of a different member of The Black Company who fought Nerazu.

That’s when Emon and Torinn notice it. The Eye of Vecna in the corpse of Nerazu. The reason they’re here.

Torinn is able to identify the spell, but Melinoe isn’t. Torinn takes Melinoe aside to ask about her intentions and get her story.

They’ve been shunned and cursed by Vecna for their shameful capture. Retrieving and returning the Eye is their ticket back into the good graces of their lord and “father”. She promises she has no plans for the prime plane at all save for revenge against Zeiram. Melinoe lets out that she has had to suffer the plight of being without purpose, shunned and exiled from the only place she calls home. Torinn understands all this and believes her, and makes a deal that he will let her have the Eye and she will help them against Zeiram.

However, Vodos and Emon don’t hear this, and Torinn doesn’t get a chance to tell them. And they see demons. And they don’t like it.

So despite having no reason to distrust Torinn up until this point, and despite his constant cries of “don’t do this” and “trust me”, and despite both Vodos and Emon being proficient in Insight… they do not believe Torinn and decide to ignore him. They steal the Eye, which works. But considering Melinoe has been obsessed with finding this for… since her release, and that she probably should have never have even stopped fidgeting with it long enough to pocket it in the first place (Bad DM), she swiftly realizes that it was taken. A brief combat ensues, and a further (clever) trick from Emon sees the “eye” (minor illusion’d smokebomb) returned. The Archons consider their debt (for being freed) repaid, (by not killing them all right here) and leave.

We end with sighs of relief from most of the party, and Torinn wondering why he would stay where he’s so clearly not trusted. And Emon having achieved his goal of acquiring the eye for his queen.

They enter into the room and engage the guards in conversation. They learn their names, Alladdar (female high elf wizard), Thrift (human rogue), and Jorgen (minotaur fighter). Jorgen seems to be the leader, he’s the “serious” one, anyway. Somehow, despite being 3,000 years old, they’re still here guarding this door.

They try to detect magic, and there’s magic. They try to remove curse, but there’s no curse. Eventually Vodos tries to teach them a game, but serendipitously because he rolls poorly and because technically they’re simulacrums and can’t learn, it doesn’t work.

They recognize these three from being the heroes that built this tomb and sealed the evil guy, and yet they can’t seem to negotiate a way past to the tomb (simulacrums, again, singular mission). They resign themselves to combat but non-violently, and just banish all three, which works.

No longer being on the plane, their guarded door opens and they pass through. A minute later it will close again.

However that’s no longer important. Because there is shopping to do.

In the corner of a 3000 year old tomb is a brand new wagon with bright lights and gaudy displays. A shapeshifting weird thing offers them trinkets, accompanied by a vexing, taunting nothic. An odd couple, to be sure. The merchant, “Knick Knack” seems to be “new” to these parts, and the Nothic seems to be his teacher. He can’t tell the party apart so well, and has some difficulty remembering their names and races.

But he has things he’s collected from across the planes, and a weird voice told him to come here and meet, so here he is!

Hanging on a rack are a pair of sea shell earrings Vodos has been looking for. Here, he learns the merchant has met with his brother, and that Thrawn is alive, sustained by some artifact. Whoops.

So there’s like 8 hours of shopping.

In the bartering, Emon produces one of the Slivers. This sets the Nothic off. He’s positively drooling, and freely trades away the best item out on the counter for it. It’s probably fine.

He also trades some info. It’s a crystal concentrated form of a magic from a different universe. It’s deadly to channel, since it doesn’t mix well with the Weave. It can kill a god.

Torinn shows the Nothic the bird, which he is unimpressed with at first, before realizing there’s another crystal in there as well, but of a different “type”. It’s then the Nothic’s turn to be possessed. Omen finally speaks.

He reveals he was once Vosk, uncle to Thosk of Barumila. He’s Kalashtar, a twin-souled. And that his second soul belongs to a being from the previous universe. The “vosk” they know is Caliban, a high elf who was once some sort of prized “pupil” to Vosk. He doesn’t explain more there. The gods hunt him for what he knows and is doing, but he can’t tell the party more or he puts them in danger. He hopes they’ll trust him whenever it comes time to make his request.

After that there’s some more shopping, and eventually the merchant leaves. Afterwhich the Archons led by melinoe emerge, and the guardians they met are gone, replaced by three melting piles of snow.

Travel, meet the vampires. They reveal that they’re getting their shit together and bailing from the area. They like being in self-control and if they hang around Zeiram’s area of influence for long, they’ll lose that. They’re only this in control still because of their being well-fed and sustained on real life rather than just necrotic energy, which Zeiram commands. So away they go. In exchange for not killing them, they share a tidbit. Zeiram has some connection to the shadowfell still.

This was not explained well by the DM because the players were like, “Duh, we knew that.” When their reaction should have been, “Oh, shit, seriously? Why, didn’t we sever his connection?”

We’ll see…

Anyway we get to the place, and it’s just positively surrounded by undead. The guys think they’ll have to start cutting shit down when suddenly they all just stop moving weird and focus and all together say, “Torinn… so glad to see you.”

You watched a fat video game guy review a porn game and expected high art?

Tharious comes back 66 golds heavier, 2 gold lighter.

Interrogations with Lord Hayao, talk of re-negotiation.

Emon heads up to fetch abuella, but alas, there are assassins.

They fight, but it proves, to be an easy fight. They take the assassin Bryan.

After interrogations they learn that Bryan is part of the Arcane Wayfarers, and they aren’t necessarily assassins by trade, and Bryan was led to believe the lords were bad guys. They put him in the cell and leave Shra to guard him.

Above, Aashir and Aeneas and ambush Torinn. They give information about Aelethious, Atbluff. And Aashir delivers the information about the barrows.

And working overtime (and polymorph-kidnapping noble lords)

They get a message that one of the lords, Aashir, wants to speak to them.

Also there’s some bad business going on at the docks that the lords expect them to take care of.

Also the lord of House Roku, a smaller upstart house, might be staging a coup?

They head for the docks.

There they find some obvious shakedowns going on. But when they try to stop it, the bandits are confused. “We’re just… doing… what you asked?” They are Edwin and Igers, and also appear to have a book with both accounts/ledgers, and physical descriptions and drawings of the new lords (Torinn, Toro, Emon, and Tharious)

They ask to be escorted to the head of operations, and meet Hughes. A rough dwarf with a scar and cataract. He passes along quite a large amount of gold, around 5000 between the “held” gold, and a personal gift from the “night market”. Hughes intimates that since they’re the new lords, they’ll be expected to “play along”. He agrees to give up the pier they took in for themselves.

That’s when Emon intimidates him to say that things are going to change. He expects things to be… “cleaner”. “I’ll pass it along” Hughes says.

They then go to see Lord Hayao. Lord of House Roku. He’s one of the “vassals” to former house Xaio, and part of the acquisition of house boom-crash.

Eventually they decide he’s full of crap, and “arrest” him. Now, they’re sort of within their right to arrest him right now. But also they’ve got to consider what it would look like. So they arrest him, but “discreetly”. By turning him into a sloth and taking him back to their keep.

Which they do, and that’s fine. But just as they’re about to start asking him questions. Assassins come in. Oh boy.

The boys are back in town.

Ulgrim’s haunting visions, wakes up with axe in hand.

Adhara gets a care package and mission. Stay with these people. See what they do. Help them.

Tharious just get stuff.

Torinn’s second vision:
We didn’t think it was significant sir. It’s a trinket, a toy! Why… How could it be important?
You…. IDIOT!!!!!!! You!
He points firmly and accusatorily at Dryjhna
Did you know about this!?
Dryjhna shrugs
Gods-dammit, why do I even bother trying with you.
Could you be ANY more useless you mute, dull-minded PARASITE!

Then they’re attacked by flying ships. which Dryjhna takes care of.

They wake up. Tharious prays on what to do about the kobolds and gets both a vision of the retribution of Pelor as well as the mercy, and is left with no answers. He goes for mercy, and leaves the kobolds in the service of the priests, who themselves having been recently slaughtered by the kobolds are less happy about the arrangement then the kobolds. They leave Qax in charge.

Aela is sort of left in charge having been closest to the head priest before death, but she was temporarily usurped by nieles as Toro had previously decided that neiles martial prowess earned him top spot. That changes and in the morning Aela is back in charge.

The goliaths finished work on the thing and it looks a weird temple with people that looked like the images in the cultists’ temple. The dead body had said “Kalashtar”.

And head back home. Passing Barumila they return the manual to Thum, and stop by Hack and Smash. They get a sneak peak of a sort of crab tank in the back, and Adhara gets some hammer armor.Some other stuff happens.

We get back to town, introduce Vodos and… that’s about it. Conversations happen, Vodos makes his intentions clear. Vodos agrees to help them with their overworld threat in exchange for getting the conch back.

Take control of Firestorm Kobolds. Take control of money brazier. Rescue priests. It’s Tharious! He’s 4x exhausted, and has been tortured. Head back to temple

Priests sleep for like 18 hours. When they wake up, Aela lets Nieles know he’s in charge of Temple because he used to be athletic in his old life. He accepts.

Do Javier Bardem. Weird ritual, tunnel of light in “space”, sounds of thousands of crashing windows (or mirrors?) Arrive in Jet’s “domain”. Impress her with ritual. She keeps Toro and the sarcophagus. Happy ending.

One the way back, the high elf “Vosk” somehow interrupts their teleportation. He seems as confused as they are. Torinn falls unconscious. Bird goes crazy. Arrive back in temple.

Grapple the taunting kobolds outside and find out about the back exit tunnel that leads to Xul’Bhor’s lair.

Head down asap, no plan. Grind session to halt for 10 minutes to complain about “unwinnable” fight after single round of combat. Win fight against monster specifically designed for Toro to beat. Toro complains loudest about unwinnable fight. Several members never take damage. Make up reasons why we won rather than accepting it was always a winnable fight. Demand 3 levels for winning winnable fight… for some reason. Squeaky wheel wins. DM gives in/up.

There’s a blizzard, it’s pretty shitty. Torinn spots a cave some distance away, and Ulgrim navigates down a slope to bring their caravan to safety, but when there’s a more treacherous drop, Toro is able to anchor himself to let the others climb down. In the last stretch, Shra uses his flaming sphere to carve out a path.

Inside the cave, though, they’re attacked by 3 remorhazes. It’s pretty tough. One of the goliaths actually dies, and Shra is nearly killed. However, he still bravely swaps himself out for Xanthor who’s super about to die.

Sadder blub

We awaken in the pool surrounded by the sleeping aboleths, greet a door, get around it. But when we attempt to see what’s inside some aboleths try to stop us. There’s a fight, we lose, and are dominated. You’d think more would happen, but that’s really just about it.

Oh, I mean also it was technically revealed that for some reason a cadre of aboleths guarded the sarcophagus 4000 years ago and ordered it to be taken to Xxiphu, their temple. That might be important. Sadly no one knows that.

We exit stage left after the lava pit. There’s walls of stone and ice magically conjured that block the way. But STATUEPOWER! There’s a tunnel to the underdark. Fuck that. Another wall, STATUEPOWER. Very, very short work of some kobolds on the other side of it.

A worg gets away, but is heard in the distance gettin’ fucked. We round the corner and find some GOLIATHS!? WHOAAAA.

Anyway, there’s a camp. Goliaths have been harried by kobolds for two weeks unable to progress or leave. Turns out Orilo, Toro’s father, has led the best from his tribe up here to complete the Javier Bardem, also.

"Sad blub" -- The Black Pudding, probably.

The party, feeling tired and wounded, decides to stop for a long rest where they stand. They set up a magical hound for watch, and head to sleep. Only an hour into their sleep, the hound is barking. quite loudly.

To the west, the party sees as they rouse themselves, are several acidic oozes. Groaning, the party readies themselves for combat. Ulgrim is the first to charge in, and is reduced quickly to 2 hitpoints. Through some thunderwave, some Conjure Animals, and some Statue Smashin’, they’re able to kill all but one, and save Ulgrim. For the very last, however, things get… cruel.

Shra ignites a bonfire underneath while keeping concentration on black tentacles to keep it in place. Torinn alights it with a moonbeam. And Ulgrim and Toro take turns flinging mind-rending insults at the ooze. It can’t understand why, but it just felt… sad. And so it was shamed to death.

The party rests, and takes the statue for a ride. Not wanting to spend time bickering, Toro orders everyone onto the statue, and orders it into the curtain. Relenting a bit because of their whining, he agrees to turn on the aura at least before they walk through the magma curtain. The curtain is dissipated, however the party as a result takes biting cold damage. The statue “speeds” through and they turn the aura off inside.

Soon, however, they’re taking fire damage from the intense heat of this oven, and their attempts at sending out bat scouts are burnt.

They can’t turn the aura on while they’re on the statue, but they can’t get off the statue because they’re wading in a pool of magma.

The party is faced with a problem. How to get safe?

Ulgrim: Take the statue back to solid ground, turn the aura on, and we’ll walk through!
Torinn: I’ll summon bats. We ride them, turn the aura on, and land!
Shra: I want a drink.

Toro: Everyone, no. Get on sarcophagus. Sarcophagus solves all problems.

So they do. They statue steps back, turns on the aura, and the party hops off. Safely traversing the territory.

They come upon a fire elemental just hanging around, and deduce that it must be conjuring the magic that’s turning this place into a magma sauna. They use the statue to disturb the elemental. And with a combination of an endless decanter, and a cold aura statue, they’re quickly able to douse both the elemental, and a portion of the lava floor. In response they’re attacked by a group of magma mephits and a large red skinned, glowing snake. However, those too are quickly dispatched by the elemental.

"I smack her around a bit" --Chris Brown (Toro)

The party scouts for like a super long time before they find some drow hanging other drow up. That’s weird, let’s kill them.

After killing like a whole bunch they ask, “Hey, so, wtf?”

They’re like, “We’re the Broken! I’m Broken Priestess Sassandra. We hate Lolth and Lolth Drow, and those were some Lolth Drow. We’re on out way to Zauvir to fuck up some more Drow but got lost. That’s our magic statue Aganast that helps us travel the melted rock parts, please don’t take it. Also there are no more drow ahead I promise and the DM rolled a 20 deception and I can prove it, but they didn’t actually end up taking the path that lead to the other drow so I didn’t even get to be smug about it but whatevs.”

They find a wall of lava and say “fuck it” and stop there for the night.

The giant leads the party into the keep of Ironslag to speak with Duke Zalto. There they explain their quest and are gifted some other people that were staying as guests (servants) of the fire giants. Ulgrim the dwarf, Shra the lizardfolk, and Xanthor, who are playing cards when the party shows up.

The fire giants approve of Toro’s quest, respect the goddess Jet, and also have a terrible fear of what lurks below.

But Toro has another request. He wants that cup, which Toro learns is named “Valor’s Stein”.

Zalto agrees, but proves to be less honorable than Toro thought he would bee, and even though Toro goes 2-1 against Zalto, Zalto declares himself the winner.

Toro is kinda pissed, but surrounded by fire giants he can’t really do anything about it.

They rest as guests and set out in the morning. Down below they’re dropped on by a whole mess of oozes. They beat them, and we stop there.

You were just a Candle in the Wind.

They heal Tharious, and decide to rely on their old faithful, polymorph. They Sloth the aberration, and toro takes it outside as high as he can in a round or two, and rops it.

It doesn’t die from the fall, but the snow and cold do douse the fire aura temporarily. From there they finish it off. Qax tells them it was the Spawn of Xul-Bohr. The party is distraught, they thought they’d taken out the leader. They worry what the hell they’ll have to fight that SPAWNS on of those things.

They head back inside, figure out the puzzle to open the statue, get in. More kobolds and a salamandar, and more burnt fire giant corpses. They engage the kobolds and Salamander, and the party decides it’s time for Toro to be a T-Rex to ride. Emon gets on. Tharious and Torinn hand back and decide to poke from afar. The kobolds swarm the T-Rex, and the result is what you’d expect. A few more kobolds and the Salamander pass up the T-Rex and head for the healer and the druid. Torinn turns into a giant eagle and flies away from Tharious, leaving him alone, so he won’t break concentration on the polymorph for Toro.However, the salamandar, tragically, is able to kill Tharious before escaping.

One kobold also manages to charm Toro magically into letting him live, so he disguises as a corpse and the others don’t notice.

After killing off all the other kobolds, a door opens and a fire giant is standing there. We stop there.